vSphere 5.1 and VCE Vblock Systems: Right Here, Right Now

The big news this morning is VMware’s announcement of the upgraded vSphere 5.1 and the introduction of the new vCloud Suite licensing model. As the world’s most advanced converged infrastructure, Vblock Systems are going to naturally take the lead in support and availability for this powerful new technology and simplified licensing model.

vSphere 5.1, the 9th major release of the VMware hypervisor, includes an entire host of new features, including:

A great set of updates to the vSphere Distributed Switch. Jason Nash has a great write-up this here.

Flexible, space-efficient storage for virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), allowing customer deploying View desktops to have more control and efficiency with their implementations.

Of course there’s more to the announcement than just the version iteration of the hypervisor! The release of the new vCloud Suite models takes the hypervisor and extends it up the consumption and management stacks. For customers who have existing vSphere 5.0 Enterprise+ licenses, VMware will offer a FREE upgrade to the vCloud Suite Standard license! The versions break down like this:

Since Vblock Systems are overwhelmingly deployed by customers to support their most mission-critical applications, these additional capabilities are a very welcome addition for them. VCE will enable customers to deploy the vCloud Suite version of their choice, and provide them the standardization, integration, risk mitigation, one-stop support and speed to market that Vblock Systems have always provided. Converged infrastructure with no compromises is the value we offer, and our unique alignment with VMware and support for this new product suite only extends that leadership.

Finally, new CEO Pat Gelsinger announced the death of the unpopular vRAM (or vTax as it was referred to by those of us who REALLY hated it), and we are excited to see that the vCloud Suite is licensed purely on CPU socket count. No VM limits, no vRAM limits, no density limits at all. The customer gets to decide how to design the infrastructure and the licensing stays as a fixed cost, not an escalating one. It remains to be seen how the VSPP pricing changes, but if this model also gets pushed there it’s going to be a huge boon to the service provider community.

There are lots and lots of additional announcements to come, and you can be sure I’ll have the coverage as it pertains to the Service Providers and the VCE ecosystem! How do you like the new vCloud Suite packaging and pricing? Throw a comment into the mix below!

Yes, I realize that the title of this blog post is going to mean I have to avoid Scott Lowe for the rest of the day or risk being punched. I’ll take my chances.